Emma and Jemma, who met in first grade at St Thomas the Apostle Primary School, were fulfilling their dream of backpacking around Europe together last year. After a concerted campaign by the adventurous Emma, Jemma agreed to join her on a sky dive near the Swiss Alps.

The day arrived and while Emma was calm and excited, Jemma cried from terror in the helicopter and kept her eyes shut the entire jump. She never saw Emma plummet to the ground.

Emma jumped first and can only remember feeling as though she were falling too quickly and that her pony tail had been yanked back somehow.

What she didn't know was that the parachute and the emergency chute had become entangled and had choked her instructor unconscious.

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The accident is still under investigation, with a legal case for compensation also in train.

The pair landed with a sickening thud just metres from a road - Emma flat on her stomach, the instructor on top of her. Her back was broken in two places and her pelvis was shattered. She could not feel her legs.

By the time Jemma descended safely, she could hear Emma screaming her name.

Jemma's tiny 157-centimetre frame was not strong enough to lift the instructor off her friend, but when the emergency helicopter arrived, Jemma physically fought her way on board to stay with Emma. The instructor survived the accident, but with serious injuries.

As Emma was rushed into surgery, Jemma made the heart-wrenching call to Emma's mother, Lisa, in Australia.

''We had played so many prank calls on our mothers over the years, I remember Lisa saying she didn't believe what I was trying to tell her.

''It was a nightmare. Well worse than a nightmare: I was in a foreign country, with no clothes other than my skydiving suit, no money, no phone credit, and my best friend was not going to walk again.''